Protests as NY cop who killed Akai Gurley asks for dismissal of charges

Protesters joined the family of Akai Gurley outside the Brooklyn courthouse, where lawyers for New York police officer Peter Liang asked for charges against him to be dropped. Liang claims his fatal shooting of Gurley in November 2014 was accidental.

A group of about 100 demonstrators marched outside the Kings
County courthouse on Thursday morning, chanting about justice,
racist police and human rights. Though lawyers for both Liang and
the Gurley family did not wish to comment on the case, Gurley's
domestic partner Kimberly Ballinger said the death was rough on
their two-year-old daughter.

“My daughter asks
every day when she can see Daddy,” said Ballinger.
“She’s going to be three in June, and her dad’s not going to
be there.”

A Brooklyn grand jury indicted Liang in February, charging him
with second-degree manslaughter, reckless endangerment,
second-degree assault and official misconduct. If convicted, he
could go to prison for up to 15 years. Liang has pleaded not
guilty and his lawyers have filed a motion that all charges be
dismissed, local media report. The next court date in the case is
June 23.

On November 20 last year, Liang and his partner Shaun Landau were
conducting a “vertical patrol” in the stairwell of the
Louis H. Pink Houses, a Brooklyn public housing project. At the
time, Liang had been on the force for less than 18 months.

The stairwell was dark because the maintenance crews had not
replaced the broken lights. Both officers were holding
flashlights and had their guns out. According to his testimony,
Liang was opening the door of the eighth floor landing with the
same hand in which he was holding his Glock. He claims the gun
went off by accident.

Akai Gurley, 28, and his companion Melissa Butler, 27, were
entering the stairwell from the seventh floor at that time.
According to Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson, the
bullet from Liang's gun ricocheted off the wall and struck Gurley
in the chest.

Thompson said he did not
believe that Liang wanted to kill Gurley. “But he had his
finger on the trigger, and he fired the gun,” Thompson told
reporters in February, following the officer's indictment.

On that occasion, Liang's lawyer, Stephen Worth, said Gurley's
death was a terrible accident but that the officer hadn't done
anything wrong.

"When this case was first investigated, it was determined to
be an accidental discharge," Worth said. "It remains an
accidental discharge today.”

Though the New York Times quoted Thompson's insistence that
charges against Liang had “nothing to do with Ferguson or
Eric Garner or any other case,” protesters have linked
Gurley's death to what they say is a nationwide pattern of police
mistreatment of African-American men.